Building a connected child sponsorship and programme management platform.
A multi-level information management system connecting field projects, regional operations and national oversight.
- Client
- ChildFund India, Bengaluru
- Engagement
- Custom Enterprise Software Development
- Project
- Sponsorship Relation Information System (SRIS)
- Period
- 2010 to 2012 (based on available project records)
Services: Enterprise Application Development, Database Architecture, Field Data Collection, Data Synchronisation, Reporting and Visualisation, Access Control, System Integration, Ongoing Technical Support
Overview
In 2010 to 2011, India Informatics worked with ChildFund India to develop and enhance SRIS (Sponsorship Relation Information System), a specialised software platform supporting child sponsorship operations and programme management across a distributed network of projects.
ChildFund’s operating model involved children enrolled through affiliated project partners, local teams responsible for maintaining programme records, and sponsors based internationally. Managing this information required more than a conventional database. The organisation needed a structured way to maintain child records, coordinate sponsorship-related communication, collect information from field locations, and give management a consolidated view of project activities.
India Informatics developed and extended a suite of interconnected applications to support these requirements, spanning project-level operations, regional coordination and national-office management. The engagement evolved beyond the core SRIS application to include centralised reporting, project database synchronisation, field data collection tools, user access management, alerts and notifications, and an online video-meeting application designed to facilitate sponsor, child interactions.
The challenge
ChildFund’s distributed operating model created several information-management challenges.
Managing child and sponsorship records
Child records and related sponsorship information needed to be organised and maintained consistently across individual projects, while supporting communication between children and their international sponsors without exposing private contact details.
Coordinating distributed project operations
Individual projects needed to manage their own operational data, while regional and national teams required appropriate access to information across the wider network. The system needed to balance local autonomy with organisation-wide oversight.
Collecting information from the field
Project staff and community mobilisers needed practical ways to capture information in remote locations. India Informatics also developed software for palmtop devices to support field-based form entry.
Consolidating information for management
National-office management needed aggregated reports and visual summaries across projects, rather than having to examine individual project databases separately.
Keeping distributed databases consistent
Changes made at project and national-office levels needed to be synchronised so that information remained aligned across the organisation.
Our solution
Sponsorship Relation Information System (SRIS)
We developed and enhanced SRIS as the core operational application for managing child and programme information.
The system supported project-level records and workflows, with projects operating in isolation from one another in the enhanced cloud-based version. Access to each project’s database was restricted to its authorised staff.
The enhanced version also introduced a redesigned benefit-tracking process, directly associating programme activities conducted by projects with benefits received by children, individually or collectively. A built-in live-chat support facility enabled project staff to contact support personnel without leaving the application.
National Office Central Application
A central application for national-office teams, providing three principal capabilities:
- Project management: select individual projects, modify project information and access project-level data, with changes propagated through the synchronisation process.
- Consolidated reporting: generate reports based on aggregated data from multiple projects to support management analysis and decision-making.
- Management dashboards and charts: present mission-critical information visually, allowing management to review key indicators at a glance.
This gave the national office a consolidated management view while retaining the operational separation of individual project databases.
Database synchronisation and project integration
A dedicated synchronisation process was developed to transfer changes between project databases and the National Office database.
When the architecture moved to a cloud-based deployment, the synchronisation process was modified to accommodate the revised database arrangement.
We also developed a Project Merge Module, which was used to merge project clusters, including Jhodal, Daltonganj, Jhabua, Kalahandi and Deogarh, as documented in the September 2011 completion report.
Field data collection and SRIS Lite
Recognising that programme information originates in the field, we developed software for palmtop devices to facilitate form-based data entry at remote project locations.
We also developed the Community Mobilizer Application, referred to as SRIS Lite, to extend SRIS functionality to community mobilisers.
These tools addressed a critical operational requirement: enabling staff working outside central offices to participate in the organisation’s information-management workflows.
Alerts, notifications and external data integration
We implemented an alerts and notifications system that allowed new alerts to be configured and deployed. Notifications were transferred to project environments through the synchronisation process.
We also developed a LINCS interface to retrieve information from the LINCS database and make it available to the National Office for distribution to projects through synchronisation. The documented implementation included MCS Slips and DFC Management.
User access management and activity monitoring
A dedicated User Management Application provided administrators with controls over user accounts, roles, groups and access levels. Documented capabilities included:
- Separate user profiles and configurable access levels.
- Group-based permission assignment.
- Encrypted password storage.
- Account expiry, inactivity controls and login limits.
- Protection against repeated failed login attempts.
- Optional restrictions on concurrent logins.
- Logging of login activity, IP addresses and accessed application pages.
These capabilities helped administrators control access to organisational applications and monitor their usage.
Video meetings for sponsors and children
India Informatics also developed a Video Meeting Application to facilitate online meetings between sponsors and children.
The documented functionality included scheduled and ad hoc meetings, invitations, audio/video communication, chat, presentation sharing and an interactive whiteboard. The application provided a dedicated digital communication channel alongside the underlying sponsorship information system.
Engineering and delivery
The engagement required coordination across multiple applications, data sources and operational levels. Our work included:
- Enhancing an existing enterprise application rather than treating each requirement as a standalone product.
- Adapting database synchronisation to a changing deployment architecture.
- Maintaining project-level data separation while enabling central reporting.
- Developing specialised interfaces for field personnel and community mobilisers.
- Implementing administrative controls and application activity logging.
- Providing technical support, database backup assistance and server security and maintenance.
The surviving documentation records the completion of numerous modules by September 2011, with supporting application guides from 2012 demonstrating the breadth of the software delivered.
Outcomes
A connected management structure
Project-level operations and national-office oversight were supported through a coordinated application and synchronisation architecture.
Improved visibility across projects
Aggregated reports and visual charts made cross-project information available for management analysis.
More structured programme tracking
The redesigned benefit-tracking process connected project activities with benefits received by children.
Support for distributed field operations
Palmtop-based data entry and SRIS Lite extended software-assisted workflows beyond central offices.
Greater control over application access
Role-based access, account controls and activity logging gave administrators tools to manage application usage.
Additional digital communication capabilities
Integrated support chat, alerts and a dedicated video-meeting application expanded the ways users could communicate and collaborate.
These outcomes describe capabilities documented in project records. Quantified improvements in efficiency, cost savings or programme impact were not available in the surviving documentation.
Why this project matters
The ChildFund India engagement illustrates a principle that continues to guide our work: complex organisations need software designed around their real operating models.
The challenge was not simply to digitise records. It was to connect people, projects, data collection, reporting, administration and communication within a coherent technology ecosystem.
More than a decade later, that systems-integration experience remains relevant to our work in custom enterprise applications, workflow automation, mobile solutions, data integration and AI-enabled business systems.
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- Office
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